Nutrition and dietary factors play important roles in health promotion and chronic disease prevention. See, for example: 1) McGinnis J M, Foege W H. Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA. 1993; 270:2207-2212; 2) Committee on Diet and Health, Food and Nutrition Board, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council. Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press; 1989; and 3) The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health. Washington, D.C.: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 1988 and DHHS (PHS) publication No. 88-50210. The Surgeon General's report states, “For two out of three adult Americans who do not smoke and do not drink excessively, one personal choice seems to influence long-term health prospects more than any other: what we eat.” (p 1).
People process foods differently and are faced with choices for health and self-image. Low-carbohydrate diets are available for many people who either cannot or choose not to consume large amounts of foods containing refined carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches. These diets are premised on the principal that excess carbohydrates are important factors for many for creating and storing large amounts of body fat.
Low-carbohydrate diets differ from those advocated by many traditional nutrition authorities who favor diets based on the so-called “food pyramid”, whose foundation rests on consumption of large amounts of high carbohydrate foods. The food pyramid lists foods without accounting for a need for restriction on carbohydrate intake. Thus, all fruits and vegetables and grains figure prominently in that view of a healthy diet. Low-carbohydrate diets, on the other hand, typically prohibit or severely limit all foods containing starches and sugars, including all grains, cereals, potatoes, and foods made with them. Allowed foods for a low-carbohydrate weight loss diet include meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, fats/oils, some dairy products (heavy cream, butter, and some cheeses), all green and other non-starchy vegetables, and a few other relatively low carbohydrate fruits.
There are also very significant differences between “low-fat” and “low-carbohydrate” diets. A diet simply restricting calories can reduce the intake of protein and fat and burns large amounts of both fat and muscle to provide fuel. These diets help an individual to lose weight, but may result in loss of muscle and reduction in basal metabolic rate. The result can be an increased need to cut calories.
On an effective low-carbohydrate diet, the body burns mostly fat and preserves lean muscle tissue. Exercise can add muscle while losing fat, thereby increasing a subject's basal metabolic rate, and enhancing the loss of fat. According to some studies, carbohydrates act very much like an addictive drug for some people. The more they eat, the more they crave those foods. On a low-carbohydrate diet, once past the initial few days, those cravings can significantly diminish, or disappear completely.
There is a need for low-carbohydrate foods of greater variety than naturally occur to enable those on low-carbohydrate diets to eat many of the foods they are accustomed to but on a carbohydrate restricted or prohibited list. Among the needed new foods are low-carbohydrate coated or breaded food products, because people like breaded foods, be they baked or fried, but they are essentially employed in conventional diets as a rich source of carbohydrates. To date, however, there are no known suitable low-carbohydrate coatings or breading for food products, dry mixes for their preparation or processes suitable to the task.
Carbohydrates can be defined in three ways; structurally (based on molecular structure), analytically (such as, for example, as defined by Federal labeling regulations), and physiologically (based on glycemic impact).
Carbohydrates defined structurally include compounds composed of at least one basic monosaccharide unit. Under this definition, carbohydrates may be further classified as simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are monosaccharides and disaccharides. Complex carbohydrates are polysaccharides, or large molecules composed of straight or branched chains of monosaccharides.
For labeling purposes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that the total carbohydrate content of a food “shall be calculated by subtraction of the sum of the crude protein, total fat, moisture and ash from the total weight of the product.” Such a measurement of carbohydrate content is not precise. For example, errors in the measurement of the food components being subtracted carry over into the determination of carbohydrate content. When measuring carbohydrate content in low-carbohydrate foods, such errors can typically be up to twenty to one hundred percent. (FAO/WHO Expert Panel on Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates in Human Nutrition/Total Carbohydrate Section; Rome, Italy (1997), http://hipocrates.univalle.edu.co/estudi/car-bohyd.htm.) Additionally, since only the enumerated food components are subtracted, the FDA definition of carbohydrates includes components such as, lignin, gums, pectin and other fibers; as well as waxes, tannins, some Maillard products, flavonoids, organic acids, and polyols. Accordingly, the FDA definition of carbohydrates can include components which are not structural carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates defined physiologically are structural carbohydrates which elicit an immediate and significant impact on blood glucose and plasma insulin. Such carbohydrates are termed “glycemic carbohydrates,” “digestible carbohydrates” or “available carbohydrates.” Structural carbohydrates which do not elicit a significant impact on blood glucose and insulin are termed “non-glycemic carbohydrates.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nutritional labeling requirements do not distinguish between glycemic carbohydrates and non-glycemic carbohydrates. For example, the FDA definition lumps together sugars and starches which have an immediate and significant impact on blood glucose, with fiber which does not impact blood glucose, as well as polyols, which have little, if any, impact on blood glucose.
Glycemic carbohydrates include simple carbohydrates, and some complex carbohydrates. After consumption, simple carbohydrates are rapidly absorbed by the small intestine, while some complex carbohydrates are typically broken down into simple carbohydrates and then absorbed. After absorption, these simple carbohydrates can elicit a rise in blood glucose levels. Non-glycemic complex carbohydrates, and some of the compounds labeled as carbohydrates on “nutritional facts” panels under the FDA definition, are not broken down into simple carbohydrates or significantly absorbed in the small intestine, but pass into the colon where they may be fermented by bacteria, or pass through the gut intact. Molecules that are not absorbed in the small intestine do not produce a rise in blood glucose levels.